When I was little I knew/thought that Macs were better designed and more inspiring than PCs... but that was it... then in the 4th grade my parents brought home a Perform 638CD (68LC040, 33 MHz, 350 MB, 4 MB, TV tuner, infrared)... cause my mom needed it for work

I loved the Mac OS... starting playing around in ClarisWorks... figured out how to draw, paint, use spreadsheets and databases, then I eventually learned how to troubleshoot... lol all at the age of 7 or 8

When my parents divorced when i was 6, they both bought performas. The accounting software my mom uses for her clients eventually stopped supporting Apple, so she bought a dell, shes on her 3rd dell now in like 6 years. It works flawlessly for her (I keep the spyware / viruses off). My dad started teaching internet applications back in the mid 90's, and he taught me everything he knew. When he started working for start-ups in the late 90's he began using a dell laptop. The thing still runs, im very impressed with dell. He is now using a thinkpad, back to teaching XML and launching biotech / nanotech programs.

Ive been building PC's since I was 12 or 13. When I was 15, I needed some community service hours, so I started volunteering at a local college that has a program for k-12 teachers to come and learn how to use technology. I quickly learned OS 10.2, and found it equal with windows. When 10.3 was rolled out onto the labs I was in, I was impressed to say the least. By than I was using 10.3 at school learning java. When the mini was announced I knew what I had to do. Ive been running dual monitors on my PC, with a switch to an ftp server run on RH9. Ive unplugged the ftp server, and happily using my 1.25 with 1GB of ram mini. When the 100GB 7200rpm drives start becoming available, I might add one.

I used to own a PC and got sick of it always giving me problems. A buddy of mine was selling his Pismo laptop for $500 so I figured if I was going to be going into the IT field, I might as well get to know the OS. I bought it, played with it and fell in love with how easy it was. When my PC was stolen during our move, I never replaced it and relied solely on my laptop. Now, im convinced I will never *need* a PC unless a future job runs software on PC's only.

My mom got a job at NASA shortly after i was born, and believe it or not all they used at NASA were macs. So my mom ended up learning the OS and purchasing a performa 638cd (like the one mentioned above) in 1994 i believe. Since then, i have primarily used apples my entire computing life. Only recently was i forced to buy a PC box because my university issued a lot of stupid obscure software that only works on windows. I know i probably couldve used VPC, but i think it might be semi useful just to have a pc box aroudn anyway. Regardless, i spend 99% of my time on our iMac or my new iBook.

My tired PIII 500 was giving me problems and limiting me artisticly. I priced out a PC at first since Macs were out of my pricerange. But it turned out that to build a PC with the same hardware specs as a Mac (Dual G5) it came to be about the same. And that didn't include software. Plus I had read lots of what MS was doing and how Longhorn would have obscene requirements PLUS they were dropping big features left & right to the point where it looks like a reskinned XP.

Then there was all this talk about Tiger what it did, the screenshots & whatnot. Looked interesting. Then I saw the Keynote speech jobs did for Tiger and I was floored. I couldn't believe this is what Macs were doing for a 5% market when MS couldn't even deliver security for a 90% market share. I dug deeper into what software was available for the Mac & made sure it did everything I wanted to do. I was surprised that 80% of that software already came with it. Being a designer I only needed Adobe CS and a 3D app to relearn (Maya PLE is free!)

Found out a friend would give me his Apple discount (15%) so I bit the bullet and splurged. Dual 2.3ghz G5 (standard), upgraded to the nVidia 256mb 6800, got a 23" HD Cinema Display, some HKSSII and a cheap external Firewire kit for my 120gb drive out of my PC and a sleek Kensington wireless mouse that has an aluminum type finish w/chrome trim to make the system look complete. Total price: $4,500.

I switched back in april. I've been a PC user my whole life and the only person I have ever known that was a mac user was my uncle but he's a author and publishes a news paper so I guess that's why he was a mac user. I remember going into his house and he had like 6 different desktops at all times but the last time I was at his house I was like 10 because he lives in germany. But I decided I'd look into it becase I heard a lot of people talking about them and saying how there was no viruses or spyware so I asked around and was a bit nervous at first but after I got my powerbook I never looked back. I also have a dell desktop that hasn't been used since so it's just a dust collector now. I think this is the best decision I have ever made.

ill be switching soon. am going to get a full specced mini and use a kvm with the PC that i have now. the pc still serves me good, but if/when it dies, then im going full apple.

im over the windows security issues. you would think that they would have it sorted by now, but it just really annoys me that it seems to be 'standard fare' to have to make your OS more secure, when it should come like that out of the box.

my family always used macs until my freshman year of hs, when I forced them to buy a pc so I could play games I have since lost all interest in games, and I just bought a powerbook for my first year of college. I haven't used my p.c. since I got it.

I've always had a thing for "alternate" computer companies, especially Commodore and Amiga. Obviously, they are both gone now, but their memory lives on (more so in Europe than in the US). Anyway, i've always known that Apple was around, and i've respect them greatly - the only non-PC computer company to survive from the 80's! However, i've never had a reason to get one, because I loved building my own computers and Mac's were way out of my price range, and couldn't play any of my games (i'm a huge gamer).

But like 2 years ago someone introduced me to Mac's, and I just HAD to have one. I quickly went from a used G3 iMac to a eMac, and just last week I picked up a G4 Cube. I still use my PC (for games and game development), but I currently have 3 Mac's in my house

I started getting fed up with MS some years ago, especially after XP. I became interested in alternative software, starting with the old mozilla suite, then firefox, ect. I eventually took the leap to a new OS all together ..linux (have to keep windows around for games though!). Tried that for a while, but it's still just too rough around the edges. So, all the while I'm juggling back and forth between windows and linux, I had started thinking and learning about macs. I became very interested in os x, but the price of a mac was a huge deterrent, even after I was no longer unempoyed. But after I saved up some money, I decided to go for it.

I got a 1Ghz ibook for about $1200. I build my own computers, piece by piece. This is not negotiable. I hate things being overly proprietary. I was interested in getting a laptop though, and figured "hey, I won't be building my own laptop anyway, I think it's time to get better aquainted with apple". This was a few months before they got upgraded and priced at $999. Kinda wanted to kick myself over that, but oh well. I still keep windows around as my primary, and frequenly play with linux, try out new distros and such. I like my ibook, though I think the hard drive is failing, I've had to reinstall the os about 3 times in the past year. That's neither here nor there, though.

I've learned a lot about mac os from 1st hand experience and a lot of active research. I think very highly of it. However, I doubt if I'll be getting any more apple computers in the future, though I suppose a future laptop wouldn't be out of the question. I can definitely see myself recommending them for other people, but for me not so much. The two problems I have with apple are that they are too proprietary (dwarfing ms, intel, dell in this department), and price. Despite switching to intel cpus, I don't expect prices to drop much if any, nor do I expect to see much more 3rd party support. Because they are so restrictive, they will remain in their insignificant little niche market.

This disappoints me because I was really hoping to see apple make a comeback and be taken seriously in the computer market again. I still desperately want a strong alternative to MS (and this very much means 3rd party support), but I don't see that being apple, I'm afraid. I do think, though, that a lot of what os x has to offer is what linux should aspire to asap.

Between my ipod, apple cinema display, and apple laptop, I've spent a lot of money on them throughout this last year (for poor folks like me anyway). I gave it a shot, but I would not call myself a "switcher". I very much want to switch away from MS. Not just sometimes, but completely. But linux just isn't quite "there" yet, and apple just thinks too small. Hopefully someday apple will change their ways, and hopefully someday linux will be as polished and friendly as a mac. Hopefully both their market shares will grow drastically in the coming years. I have been, and will continue to be, keeping an eye on them both. But in the mean time, I have to come back to the reality that I'll have to make do with windows for at least a while longer.

My tired PIII 500 was giving me problems and limiting me artisticly. I priced out a PC at first since Macs were out of my pricerange. But it turned out that to build a PC with the same hardware specs as a Mac (Dual G5) it came to be about the same. And that didn't include software. Plus I had read lots of what MS was doing and how Longhorn would have obscene requirements PLUS they were dropping big features left & right to the point where it looks like a reskinned XP.

Then there was all this talk about Tiger what it did, the screenshots & whatnot. Looked interesting. Then I saw the Keynote speech jobs did for Tiger and I was floored. I couldn't believe this is what Macs were doing for a 5% market when MS couldn't even deliver security for a 90% market share. I dug deeper into what software was available for the Mac & made sure it did everything I wanted to do. I was surprised that 80% of that software already came with it. Being a designer I only needed Adobe CS and a 3D app to relearn (Maya PLE is free!)

Found out a friend would give me his Apple discount (15%) so I bit the bullet and splurged. Dual 2.3ghz G5 (standard), upgraded to the nVidia 256mb 6800, got a 23" HD Cinema Display, some HKSSII and a cheap external Firewire kit for my 120gb drive out of my PC and a sleek Kensington wireless mouse that has an aluminum type finish w/chrome trim to make the system look complete. Total price: $4,500.